The essay sparked a veritable media drama that ended with Berliner’s resignation on Wednesday. On his way out, he said goodbye to CEO Katherine Maher. “I cannot work in a newsroom that is despised by a new CEO whose divisive opinions support the very issues at NPR that I cited in my Free Press essay,” Berliner said. I wrote to X.
What on earth did Maher do to deserve such a diss? She issued a statement objecting to Berliner’s essay, saying, “It is extremely disrespectful, hurtful, and humiliating to question whether a nation is simply recognizing its own identity and faithfully fulfilling its mission.” said. As NPR’s David Folkenflik reported, Berliner took exception to that commentary.
In other words, Berliner has now become an expert in contempt and condemnation. In an essay for the Free Press, he deplores his colleagues’ “vindication,” arguing that it has “veered into an effort to damage and subvert.” [Donald] President Trump takes office. ”
now that It’s contempt. Even in the cut-throat world of journalism, criticizing a colleague for a published work is a rare act, especially in another news organization. As Berliner suggests in his essay, this was something of a last resort, given that voicing his concerns internally had little effect. He urged people to listen to NPR’s coverage and “decide for themselves.”
I accepted your invitation. Over the past few days, I’ve scoured nearly three years’ worth of NPR’s reporting on Russiagate, the effort by federal agents and the media to uncover the truth about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Because NPR’s alleged slant on this article serves as primary evidence in Berliner’s onslaught, and because it is central to the claim that the network was aiming to overthrow Trump, I chose this part of the essay. I decided to limit my efforts to.
And what a quantity! NPR’s Russia vs. Trump coverage is under attack from Berlin and consists of thousands of articles, podcasts, segments, and more. Berlin links to his one. Therefore, his serious claims have little, if any, evidence. This is a lazy, summative approach to evaluating a large body of work, and the kind of emotion-based criticism that passes for media coverage these days. Essayists too often write conclusive broadsides in response to news reports, confident that their fellow ideological travelers will applaud them, no matter how shoddy the supporting material.
Berliner’s piece was published by Free Press, which specializes in reporting stories that are “ignored or misunderstood because of ideological narratives,” but media coverage, whether or not the crisis lies in itself, It wasn’t by NPR, which would require infinitely more corroboration. In the newsroom or elsewhere.
There was an irony in that. Berliner edited many of the articles signed by NPR media correspondent Folkenflik. he knows better.
Supporting Berliner’s conclusions about NPR’s Russian operations:[Rep. Adam] Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, became NPR’s mentor and ever-present muse. By my count, NPR hosts interviewed Schiff 25 times about Trump and Russia. In many of those conversations, Mr. Schiff implied there was evidence of collusion. Schiff’s talking points became the drumbeat of NPR News coverage. ”
Yes, Schiff appears repeatedly on the air. “Like many broadcast news organizations, NPR frequently interviewed Congressman Schiff during the Trump administration, as he was a key figure in the Russia interference investigation. We will tell this story carefully and in perspective. ,” an NPR spokesperson said in a statement. “Congressman. Schiff’s perspective is just one element of our reporting on the Russian interference incident, and he in no way forced NPR’s coverage.” A spokesperson said in a statement that NPR reported in January 2017. From December 2019 to December 2019, he conducted 900 interviews with members of Congress, including Paul Ryan, Jim Jordan, and Eric Swalwell.
The numbers are less important than the content of Schiff’s interview, which shows a central trend of procedural confusion, repetition of previously reported revelations, and surveillance. In the interview, Schiff said “we will learn a lot more” if former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort cooperates with authorities. In this article, a lawmaker talks about the committee’s investigative duties. “I think we need to use subpoenas, and we need to stand up and say we’re going to get answers here.” Schiff said Trump was “particularly excited” when the topic turned to Russia. The question is whether or not to do so. “Yes, of course,” he answered.
Is this the bigoted poison that Berliner is writing about? We asked Mr. Schiff to provide examples of where the key points in his story fill NPR’s independent reporting. After several emails and phone calls, Mr. Berliner has not responded with supporting documentation.
If NPR wanted to stir up left-wing viewers with suggestive reporting about President Trump’s alleged crimes with Russia, it had tools at its disposal. The so-called Steele dossier, published by BuzzFeed News in early January 2017, contained explosive allegations by a former British intelligence officer. Various news outlets and commentators gave the document undeserved credibility. Pointed out in an extensive thread by Drew Holden And this space series. The main culprits include McClatchy, which published an article supporting the dossier’s claim that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was traveling to Prague for collusive business. and MSNBC chief Rachel Maddow, a believer in the document who supported it during Russiagate.
NPR’s paperwork was far from perfect. For example, “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross occasionally failed to properly criticize Dossier boosters during his interviews. However, the outlet was careful to avoid McClatchy’s “scoop” on Cohen, otherwise blocking any mention of the document with police tape. A 2019 NPR article states, “NPR is not revealing details of the documents because many of them remain uncertified.” An NPR spokesperson said in a statement that “NPR has found no evidence of any unconfirmed elements in the Trump dossier.”
As further evidence of the employer’s misguided practices, Berliner claims that the Mueller report found “no credible evidence of collusion, yet NPR’s coverage was extremely thin.” Russiagate quietly disappeared from our programming. ” Of course, it is an immutable law of media physics that reporting stops when an article ends. After all, who is covering Abcam these days?
But there’s a more fragile issue at play here. Berliner’s dismissal of Robert S. Mueller III’s findings was technically misguided because the special counsel’s investigation did not apply “the concept of ‘collusion'” in its investigation. But it leaves the impression that the media’s pursuit of various elements of Russiagate was a fool’s errand. Indeed, journalists and official investigations have documented a spreadsheet’s worth of scandalous activity that, in Mueller’s view, does not amount to an international conspiracy.President Trump would have you believe that non-criminality means something. The lack of wrongdoing, the logical brutality instigated by Berliner’s essay.
Substantive aside, Berliner’s claim that NPR’s campaign will “defeat” Trump is at odds with the cautious claims in NPR’s daily reporting. Examples abound. In this segment, NPR correspondents struggle to make sense of the just-released Mueller report. In this article, NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly interviews a former CIA official who presciently shoots down liberal fever dreams related to Russia and Trump. In this article, published months before the Mueller report, NPR editors claimed that the Russia case was “undermining” and even went so far as to say that “important kernels of truth” were in the Mueller report. are doing. President Trump’s famous tweets It cites “No smocking guns… No collusion.” This article highlights President Trump’s views on the Mueller investigation. The article is headlined, “Trump elated after reports of no phone calls ahead of 2016 Russia meeting.”
Berliner wrote that NPR compounded its mistake by proceeding with “no impunity or remorse” in the wake of the Russian experience. Please reflect on this. It’s a good step for any news organization after reporting a big story. Presumably, Mr. Berliner provided various URLs for such reviews, but he did not share any with me. After poking around in NPR’s search box, I shortlisted his interview with Gross about documents and other articles that were found to be problematic or contradictory to other reporting.
But Berliner does not simply overstep the scant evidence in his article with his tenacious claims. He has positioned his former workplace as a bunch of ideologues driven by political outcomes rather than facts, essentially a left-wing analogue of Fox News. That salvo appears to have diminished his appeal as a media collaborator.
After all, NPR bears no resemblance. It’s a unique outlet driven by old-fashioned journalistic principles, an aversion to offending anyone, and a steady tendency to annoy listeners. There are certainly many things to apologize for, but the on-air campaign to oust the president is not among them.
